• Zhuo-Hao Liu, Nan-Yu Chen, Po-Hsun Tu, Ping K Yip, Yu-Chi Wang, Ching-Chang Chen, Chi-Cheng Chuang, Chi-Hung Liu, Peng-Wei Hsu, and Yu-Sheng Lin.
• Departments of Neurosurgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Chang Gung Medical College and University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
• World Neurosurg. 2019 Apr 4.

ObjectiveThe impact of antithrombotic agents on patients with primary intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) remains controversial, especially patients who require emergent craniotomy. This study was undertaken to evaluate clinical outcomes in operated patients with ICH with and without previous antithrombotic agents.MethodsThis is a retrospective cohort study. Between January 2001 and December 2013, all patients with ICH who received emergent craniotomy and who were present in Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database were screened and divided into those with previous antiplatelet therapy, anticoagulant therapy, and nonantithrombotic therapy according to their health care claims data within 3 months of index admission. The primary end points included in-hospital mortality and complications and short-term outcome.ResultsOf 18,872 eligible patients, 16,251 (87.1%) did not receive any antithrombotic therapy, 2267 patients had antiplatelet therapy, and 354 patients had anticoagulation therapy. After propensity score matching, significantly more blood transfusions and craniectomies were identified in the patients with previous antithrombotic treatment compared with those undergoing nonantithrombotic therapy. Compared with the nonantithrombotic treatment cohort, patients under previous anticoagulant treatment had significantly higher in-hospital mortality (odds ratio, 2.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-3.10). Furthermore, during the 6-month follow-up period, previous anticoagulant therapy was independently associated with a greater risk of all-cause mortality (P = 0.001). The in-hospital and 6-month all-cause mortality of patients with previous antiplatelet treatment was not significantly different from patients with nonantithrombotic treatment.ConclusionsThese findings suggested an increased risk of in-hospital mortality and poor short-term outcome among operated patients with ICH with previous antithrombotic therapy, particularly anticoagulant therapy, but not with antiplatelet therapy.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

7 keywords...

hide…